Silver is trading at $33.79/oz, €26.41/oz and £20.99/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,630.00/oz, palladium at $627.10/oz and rhodium at $1,075/oz.

Gold fell $3.10 or 0.18% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,761.40. Silver rose to $34.47 in early New York trade then fell off and finished with a loss of 0.71%.

Gold continues to eke out gradual gains in all currencies. It looks set for the best quarterly gain in more than two years, as central banks and investors diversify into gold to hedge against the prospect of weaker currencies and slowing growth.

Euro gold hovering near record highs at €1,375/oz shows the eurozone crisis is far from over and is indeed set to deepen in coming months.

The overnight joint declaration of Germany, the Netherlands and Finland appears to unravel much of what was agreed at the last European summit in June, when EU leaders attempted to pave the way for the direct recapitalisation of troubled banks, is gold bullish.

The IMF has warned that the financial system remains ‘vulnerable’ and is a work in progress.

In Spain, protestors fought with police in Madrid as the government embarks on a new phase of austerity measures for the 2013 budget this Thursday.

The SPDR Gold Trust ETF said its holdings had risen to a record high of 1,331.331 tonnes by Sept. 25.

Unrest in South Africa continues and the fourth largest producer in the world, Goldfields, said that workers reneged on a deal to end a two week strike at its KDC West operation and miners at its Beatrix mine had also downed tools.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., the world’s third-largest gold producer, halted production at all of its South African mines as labor unrest that left at least 46 dead in the past two months continues to spread.

Julius Malema, expelled as youth leader from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, was granted bail on a charge of money laundering.

The IMF reported that various countries continued diversifying into gold in July, some significantly.

South Korean gold reserves rose a sharp 16 tonnes for a 30% increase in total gold reserves.

Paraguay became the latest central bank to begin diversifying into gold. Their gold reserves rose sharply - from a few thousand ounces to over 8 tonnes.

Desperate North Korea has exported more than 2 tons to gold hungry China over the past year to earn US $100 million. Even in tough times during the Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il regimes, North Korea refused to let go of its precious gold reserves.

Chosun media reports that “a mysterious agency known as Room 39, which manages Kim Jong-un's money, and the People's Armed Forces are spearheading exports of gold, said an informed source in China. "They are selling not only gold that was produced since December last year, when Kim Jong-un came to power, but also gold from the country's reserves and bought from its people."

This is a sign of the desperation of the North Korean regime and also signals China’s intent to vastly increase the People’s Bank of China’s gold reserves.